Past, Present, Future
by Proj. Cadmus
Summary: Danny finds himself catapulted into an ancient prophecy with one of his greatest enemies to count on as his greatest ally.
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Takes place after season 3, don't read if you don't want spoilers.

Reviews are very welcome, particularly constructive critism. Flames will be deflected by Danny's ice powers.

* * *

Danny never really liked fame. Sure it was flattering but mobs of fans tended to interfere with his life to much. He could always take comfort in the fact that he could slip away from it all by transforming into his human self, just go back into the low profile life he led for the last fourteen years.

At least until the Disasteroid incident.

"Ugh! I can't take it anymore!" Danny exclaimed while walking through the halls of Casper High. "The 'Danny you're the greatest' and 'Danny can you sign my sign my stomach' got old a week ago."

"Yeah, I'm not liking it much either." Sam agreed, casting an angry glare at Paulina who was passing a flirtatious look at Danny.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Tucker said following the duo closely behind walking behind with two gorgeous girls who were trying to get the new mayor to make some "minor changes" to the town laws(not that he would do that, but no need to tell the ladies so yet).

"Though I am kind of peeved that even a mayor I still have to go to school, even as mayor." Tucker complained.

"Uh oh, Danny trouble at ten o' clock" Sam said, pointing to agents K and O of the Guys in White, who were walking up to them.

"The world leaders request your presence immediately, ghost kid." said Agent K, his overly formal voice carrying more than a hint of distain for the child.

"If you will step out back we have a private jet waiting to escort you." continued Agent O.

"Couldn't I just fly on my own," Danny asked, wary of getting in a plane with the ghost hunting agents.

"The jet was_ our_ suggestion; we don't trust you." Agent K replied, the half-hearted attempt to mask his hate for the boy completely gone now.

The three walked forward, but the two government agents prevented Sam and Tucker from going any further.

"Not you, just him." Agent O aid harshly.

Tucker and Sam cat doubtful looks at Danny.

"Don't worry, I'll be ok." Danny reassured them as the G.I.W. agents led him out of the school._ "I hope_." He silently added.

* * *

Many annoying attempts by the Guys in White to expose Danny as an evil ghost, Danny finally reached the assembly of world leaders, and Danny couldn't help but feel nervous standing before so many powerful and influential people. Such a feeling of confidence and power, Danny had seen in only a select few people before now. '_Vlad had It_', he thought, '_and the ghost king, the Observants, and Walker kind of.'_

"Danny Phantom," one of the World Leaders began, "Do you know why you have been accepted so completely by-not just us- but the entire world as well?"

"Um, because I saved the world." Danny replied nervously.

The man smiled, "Well, yes, that, but when you did that you got _every nation in the world_to join together, you inspired every nation of the world to join together for a common goal, do you know how amazing that is! Do you know how much better relations between countries have been since then! Because of _you_, we are closer to world peace than could ever be imagined before!"

The various other world leaders, who remained silent until now, started clapping and cheering for the boy.

Danny simply blushed in response.

"Which brings us to the reason we called you here," added the woman next to him, "we want to create more friendly relations with the denizens of the ghost zone, and due to your proven exemplary leadership and inspirational skills, we want you to act as our ambassador."

"What! Me! I don't know if you've noticed but I'm not exactly popular with the ghosts, I _fight _them most of the time!" Danny replied.

"But you also managed to rally them to save the world with the Disasteroid, and a few eye witness accounts say that the ghost helped you last Christmas." Another leader replied.

"Aside from that, you mentioned that were on good terms with a band of yeti ghosts and certain others during that interview a few weeks ago." Yet another said, "And the other ghosts seem to respect you at least, please, it could be our chance at least greatly decrease the ghost attacks, and imagine what some better relations with ghosts could teach us!."

"There could be ghosts of creatures from millions of years in the past, imagine what it would tell us about our history, or how much it could help our recent research with ectoplasm as an alternate energy resource." Another leader elaborated.

"Well…I guess." Danny said doubtfully.

"Did we mention that your ambassador duties will give you complete exemption from school?" _Another_ leader said.

'_And all the crazed fans in Casper High.' _Danny thought. "I'll do it."

"Wonderful!" the man who had spoken to Danny first exclaimed excitedly.

"Now, there's one other matter to discuss." the U.S. President said, "The search for Vlad Masters, or Vlad Plasmius as he prefers to be called. Our simulations all point to him getting pummeled by the Disasteroid, and it would be unlikely he survived that, but he is your enemy and you know him best so we'd like your opinion."

"Um…Mr. President," Danny began nervously, "I don't mean to question your simulations, but I know my arch-enemy, and it would take a lot more than an asteroid to kill him, he's definitely alive." his confidence arising with every word.

"Alright we'll begin searching for him immediately. Phantom use your new ambassador duties to also search every nook and cranny of the ghost zone for Plasmius. The governments of the world will do our best to cover earth and outer space." The President replied.

"Okay, but if you need help with the outer space part let me know, I mean I could be a great help, I know Vlad so I'll probably know where he'd try to hide in space, which you know is huge so you could probably use another person on your team." Danny stammered almost incoherently.

"Oh really now," said one of the leaders dryly.

"Yeah…And, I've always wanted to be an astronaut." Danny said sheepishly.

The U.S. President laughed. "Alright, we will make sure you're on the space mission once we get that set up, until then you'd better get some rest, your ambassador duties officially start tomorrow."

* * *

"YES!" Lance Thunder exclaimed happily.

"I can't believe I won the lottery! No more stupid weatherman job, where I'm sent out to report on some stupid ghost attack that'll get me almost killed, in fact I'm gonna move as far away from Amity Park and ghosts as possible! I've always wanted to live in-."

Lance Thunder never got to finish that sentence as he suddenly drifted into the unconscious that accompanies being a victim of ghostly overshadowing.


	2. Chapter 2

Authors Note: The flashback takes place during Phantom Planet. If you look closely you'll see the Ghost King making a cameo among the masses of ghosts when Danny goes to get his massive 'ghost power source' (he might be in the parts where they power the intangibility device to, I'm not sure), while this is probably just some mistake, like Technus being in Reign Storm (which I also have an in story explanation/excuse), I got thinking how that would work, in story, and now it's a big part of the story.

* * *

Flashback 

_The Ghost Zone was in complete chaos._

_Of course the zone was always in chaos, aside from few organized civilizations (Like Dora's medieval kingdom and Frostbite's group of yeti's), the Order of the Observants, and Walker's prison. _

_But now the Ghost Zone was worse: massive overpopulation due to too many ghosts coming back to the zone in hopes of escaping the deadly asteroid, the smarter ones who knew of the Ghost Zone's link to earth…completely abandoned their intelligence and ran around in panic with the knowledge that the end was near, a few ghosts tried to rally control and formulate a plan (Skulker was doing a particularly admirable job of this) but the majority was too stuck in the chaos to listen. It was the apocalypse by Ghost Zone standards, and that was saying something. _

_The Order of the Observants, even with their massive political influence over the dimension, was almost completely powerless to stop it. That's why the six members of the Observant High Council were here, preparing to do something they vowed never to do for millennia._

_And with that they turned Skeleton Key and unlocked the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep unleashing the Pariah Dark, King of all Ghosts, and hopefully-through respect and fear- the one who can keep the Ghost Zone together long enough for the half-ghost kid to arrive with his plan to save both worlds. _

End Flashback

It had worked of course. The Ancient Ghost King, was a great leader, and he did manage to keep the Zone together long enough for Danny Phantom to arrive (mostly through intimidation).

Even better, Danny Phantom, so incredibly preoccupied with the Disasteroid didn't even notice the King among the masses of spirits he was he was trying to convince.

Of course now there was the problem of the pissed off Ghost King in the middle of the newly rebuilt Observant High Council Tribunal Headquarters.

"So what do you plan to do about me, my old disciples," Pariah Dark inquired, "Or do you prefer to be called the 'Ancient Ghosts'.

"We prefer the Observant High Council." They said in unison, their voices not betraying the slightest hint of emotion.

"Very well 'Observant High Council' do you plan on stopping me, I don't recall you attempting to defeat me last time, almost a shame really, I would have relished the challenge of a rematch." The Ancient King said.

"We knew the Phantom-child would defeat you, aside we now have an oath 'To watch, never act.'" Replied the Council.

"_Never Act!" _The great king cried angrily, "When have I ever inspired such cowardice in my teachings, oh…wait, that's right…you were always so spineless, never able to do what must be done!"

"_What must be done?"_ One of the Observants growled, "You attempted to subjugate the entire Ghost Zone! Thank the Aspects that we were able to stop you before you reached that crystal!"

The other Observants attempted to calm their brother down, though Pariah never noticed as he drifted out of reality at the mention of the crystal.

"Ah...yes, the mystic crystal ball that could control the minds of ghosts, it was to cement my control in this Ghost World, and begin my invasion in that strange human land. The day you defeated me was when I looked for it in fact, you attacked me while I was distracted with searching for the orb, while your strange ice wielding yeti followers handled the Fright Knight and my other generals. The Ancient king recalled. "What ever happened to that crystal ball?"

"During the chaos, it fell through a natural Ghost Zone portal, into the lap of a man named George Nickolas Showenhower, who used its power to enslave ghosts for entertainment purposes." An observant replied.

The ghost king's face contorted in disgust at the idea of such a powerful object being used for such a purpose.

"Until his descendent, Fredrick Isaac Showenhower, aka Freakshow, used the object to cause major thefts. The Phantom-child defeated him sometime afterwards; the orb was destroyed in the process."

"Such a shame for an object with so much potential," Pariah Dark said, with a frown, which suddenly became a cruel smirk. "Oh based on your mentioning of them before I assume the Aspects doing well."

Six head sized eyeballs shot up wide eyed. Two of the Observants tried to attack the ghost king, two other held them back, one just stood silent, unable to move or speak. The last one simply spoke quietly, "Many of the Aspects died as you know, most of the others were driven insane, their lust for power having driven them mad, _like you._ Only Clockwork remains under our employment."

The 'King of all ghosts' simply stood smugly, happy at the Observants reactions and turned to leave. _'Who says I can't manipulate others.' _He thought.

"Ah, but enough reminiscing, I must regain the Crown of Fire, I suppose you will not stop me as par your Oath." The King smirked.

"No we won't, but my king, please do not look for the crown, look how its power has corrupted you!" The last Observant pleaded.

"Bah! Corrupted? You were just always too foolish to grasp true power!" And with that the Pariah left the Tribunal headquarters.

The Observants watched as their former master left, thinking back to the moment after the locked Pariah Dark in the sarcophagus, when they first made their oath. '_From this moment on we shall never act on our power, so it may never corrupt us as it corrupted our great king, from this moment on we shall simply observe.'_

* * *

"So Danny's the ghost-kid," Valerie repeated for what seemed to be the bazillionth time. 

"I guess I should have figured it out, what with Dani and Vlad being half-ghosts, and I mean Danny _Fenton_, Danny _Phantom_, how could I have not been able to figure that out?"

"You got me; maybe you should work on you detective skills a bit more." A playful voice came out of thin air.

"Ahh!" Valerie screamed, whipping out an ecto-gun and pointing it in the direction of the voice.

"Hey! Don't shoot!" Dani said in panic, turning herself visible.

"Oh! Dani! Sorry! Though you shouldn't really sneak up on people like that." Valerie said in surprise.

"Heh, sorry bout that, forgot I was still invisible." Dani replied sheepishly.

"I want you to know though, Danny's the good guy, he's always been the good guy, and…if you want to hurt him, I'm gonna have to stop you." Dani replied remorsefully, ectoplasmic energy lighting up in her hands.

"It's okay, I won't hurt him." Valerie replied, "I just never wanted to think, that _I_ was the bad guy, and Vlad was always so quick to reassure that Danny Phantom was the villian, he was always so convincing, so…"

"Fatherly." Dani finished solemnly.

"Yeah" Valerie agreed

"I know what you mean." Dani continued "Vlad acts so much like, not just like a dad, but the perfect dad, like he always understood you, and knew how to make everything in you're life better."

Valerie certainly understood, she remembered wishing that the so understanding, 'Mr. Masters' _was_ her father. _'He understands_ _that I'm the only one that can stop these ghosts, and has _

"Is Vlad _your_ dad, I mean, it just seems…you were just talking about how much like a father he is…and you're both half ghost, so I just thought…" Valerie said, clearly having trouble on how to approach the subject.

"Well, kind of, I'm, well, a clone of Danny, made by Vlad, a failed attempt at getting his 'perfect half-ghost son.'" Dani said awkwardly

Valerie just stared speechless, startled at the revelation.

"Vlad acted like my dad though, he fed me, took care of me, and he was actually a really good dad, which made it so awful when I realized he was just using me, and…I guess he was, except parents aren't supposed to really think of you as a 'mess he isn't going to clean up' as Danny said." Dani continued.

'_Or sacrifice you're other children lives for some crazy plan.'_ Dani thought sadly._ 'Mindless or not they were my brothers.'_

Danielle never told Danny how much the deaths of the other clones upset her. Like her they simply did what there father said following his orders, naively believing that their father would never cause harm to them. She never told Danny of her feelings, of how horrifying it was when Danny (and later on she herself) killed what were essentially her brothers, because Danny, if he ever saw her point would have felt guilty and, aside from the fact the he didn't know and it wasn't his fault, he had more than enough things on his mind.

"Well Danny still has a lot of explaining to do though, the ghost dog thing, kidnapping the mayor, all those thefts." Valerie said eager to change to depressing subject.

"In fact, I've been kinda avoiding him for the last few weeks and with him now doing the ambassador thing, could you take me to him, so I could get some answers out of him and…er…sorta." She continued, stumbling on the last part.

"Apologize to him?" Dani suggested helpfully.

"Maybe." Replied Valerie, still stubbornly refusing to admit outright, that she had something to apologize for.

Dani replied, "Well, I don't know exactly where Danny is, but I know someone who can get you there. _Hey Wulf!_"

And with that the werewolf-like ghost fazed through the ceiling of Valerie's apartment and promptly started licking Dani, covering her (and thereby Valerie, who was standing right next to her) in ghostly dog slobber.

* * *

'_I suppose I should be grateful that the Observants were to preoccupied with Pariah to notice the signs.'_ Clockwork thought, and looked at the horribly battered Fenton Thermos _'or the thermos's recent damages.'_

Clockwork teleported out of his tower, just as the Fenton Thermosbroke, unleashing one of the greatest evils ever upon two unsuspecting worlds.

* * *

Authors Note: Ugh. I think I really messed up the Valerie and Dani parts; hopefully I'll do better with the Danny, Valerie, Dani stuff next chapter. 


	3. Chapter 3

Note: I will only refer to Danny's alternate future self as Phantom. It was the only thing he was actually called during the special, and it's fairly accurate (he's basically Danny Phantom with the Danny part ripped out of him). That and I think "Dan" just sounds kinda stupid.

* * *

Phantom looked upon Clockwork's home with caution, expecting the time master to appear at any moment with that calm, lightly amused smirk of his.

After making sure Clockwork was nowhere to be found, he quickly grabbed a time medallion and flew out of the tower.

'_There's a whole new world to destroy now, plans to make, enemies to ruin,'_ Phantom thought grinning ant the prospect of being able to repeat the destruction he caused in the alternate timeline.

But being trapped in a thermos for so long had been extremely frustrating. He saw in the distance a large landmass with what looked like a settlement large enough for a few hundred ghosts.

An insane grin appeared on his face.

'_Time to blow off some steam.'_

* * *

Pariah floated in the depths of the zone, the ghosts seeing him panicking and fleeing in terror.

Despite how he had seemed when facing the Observants, what they had said disturbed him deeply.

'_No you must seize power to truly rule, the fools simply couldn't understand that.'_ He reasoned.

Still his revelations _did_ come very soon after he had first worn the crown and ring.

"AGHH!" Pain seared in his head and his desire to find his crown intensified. Unknown to him the ring of rage glowed, the eyes of the skull printed on it radiated with malevolence.

"Perhaps I should rest for a spell, and create a plan to retrieve my crown." The Ghost King said.

He spotted a familiar location and dove to it.

* * *

Dora's Renaissance kingdom (with time passing normally now the kingdom had passed the Middle Ages into the Renaissance) had prospered with Aragon out of the way, making such things like widespread riot and panic unheard of.

So when widespread riot and panic was heard to be in the main streets it didn't take long for Princess Dora to hear about it and go to investigate.

"What is going…oh my…no." she said, staring dumbfounded that in the middle of the main street was King Pariah Dark.

When Pariah saw Dora standing there he smiled, and lumbered over to her.

"My Daughter!" He bellowed, "It is good to see you again. I did not find you during my first release; I assume it was because of all the commotion with those cowards leaving the zone."

"Ahhh!" Dora screamed, stumbling out of her stupor and running in panic.

"Daughter! Come Back!" The Ghost King yelled, flying after her.

'_The horror on her face, she was always a little upset at my methods, always a bit soft, takes after her mother that way, but I never expected…" _He thought, the Observants words creeping up one more.

And once more horrific pain crept into his body.

"AAGGGHHHHH!" Pariah bellowed, falling to the ground, his body twitching horribly.

"Father!" He heard his daughter yell, right before he lost consciousness.

* * *

Pariah awoke slowly, his head throbbing. Getting to his feet he quickly noticed that he was in one cells of the old subterranean dungeons, which had, to his surprise was empty except for one other prisoner on the other side of the chamber, too far away to actually see.

"Father." Dora said quietly, entering the dungeon room with a tray of food, a sad expression adoring her pale face.

"Daughter! What is the meaning of this?" Pariah roared, anger and confusion plain on his face. "I come back to my birth home, the former heart of my kingdom, and I am thrown into the very cells home to the Ghost Zone's worst, most traitorous enemies!"

Dora shrank back, her nervous hands letting of the food tray which instantly crashed to the ground, every inch of the confidence gained from standing up to and being feed from her brother instantly fading away.

"I-" she started weakly, trying to explain her actions.

"-was a coward and a fool!" A much stronger voice echoed from the other side of the dungeon.

The other prisoner walked up to the edge of the cell, his pale blue arms grabbing the cold, steel bars.

"Aragon! My son! Is that you?" The ghost king cried. Staring in disbelief at the fact that his son and successor was trapped in a filthy cell, much like his indignation that he was put in a similar filthy cell.

Aragon looked significantly worse for ware. His hair was wild and unkempt, clothes ragged and torn, his eyes showed the insanity of being trapped in the dungeons for so long.

"I tried to stop her father, but the traitorous witch conspired with the ghost child that imprisoned you, to change-to ruin your kingdom!" Despite his appearance, Aragon's voice still carried its confident, commanding tone.

"I had no choice father!" Dora pleaded. "The power of the amulet had made him a tyrant long before!"

"Bah! More of this 'corruption', all it did was show him what was needed to seize true power!" Pariah said.

"I couldn't even keep my _mind_ with the amulet, until recently." Dora cried. "Look!"

Dora pulled out an amulet and waved it close to her brother. Instantly Aragon's eyes took on an even crazier look.

"Give me my power!" Aragon screamed, nostrils flaring. "Give it to me!"

Pariah watched intently, transfixed on his son's behavior. The scene before him reminded him so much of what he felt when separated from the crown and the ring and to see his son acting as he did…

The Ring of Rage glowed once again and searing pain shot up in the ancient king.

_Find the crown_ a deep voice resonated in his head, malevolence dripping from each word spoken.

'_The voice,' _Pariah thought, through the suffering he was feeling. _'I have heard it before.' _

And memories drifted back to the past, of how this voice assured him of his goals, how it drowned out pleas of how the powers of the crown and ring had corrupted him, how it convinced him to retrieve the Amulets of Aragon.

With a final yelp of pain the Ghost King removed the Ring of Rage from his finger and threw it to the far side of the dungeon.

The king fell to his knees breathing heavily, though before he could regain his footing an explosion shook the very ground.

Not a moment later the ceiling exploded, revealing Phantom grinning down upon them.

* * *

"So exactly how do you know Wulf again?" Valerie asked stepping out of the rift between the dimensions Wulf had created.

"Oh, after the Desasteroid incident, we met up and after finding out that we were both friends of Danny we decided to hang out a bit." Dani remarked cheerfully.

"Uh huh." Valerie said warily.

"Oh don't worry, he's house trained," Danni joked "and he's really affectionate."

As if to demonstrate, Wulf licked both Dani and Valerie covering them with ghostly saliva.

Dani simply laughed, while Valerie angrily muttered something about how much she hated ghost dogs.

Suddenly massive flashed of light glowed in the distance followed by the sounds of explosions.

"Woah! What was that?" Dani asked.

"Don't know, but I bet it's not good." Valerie replied heading towards the anomaly.

* * *

"Finally! Done!" Danny exclaimed, finishing up what would hopefully be the last of the paperwork that would involve the treaty between Earth and the Land of the Far Frozen.

"Agreed, that was most annoying Great One." Frostbite said next to him. "Though hopefully it will lead to better relations between my people and the Earth,"

"Ugh, nothing could be worth than 18 hours of nonstop paperwork." Tucker complained angry that his position as mayor coupled with his close ties with to Danny Phantom had made him have to come along.

"Oh, it wasn't that bad." Maddie said. "In fact I found the way of how ghosts handle politics fascinating." Jack and Maddie insisted to coming along into the Ghost Zone, such an opportunity was a dream come true, for two people who had devoted their lives to studying ghosts.

"Right Jack?" Maddie said prodding her sleeping husband.

"Wha…" Jack said barely awake (which became fully awake once he saw how his wife was glaring at him). "Oh yeah! Especially the part where you threw that chair Frostbite!"

The yeti simply smiled sheepishly in response.

"Guys! Come Quick!" The voice of Sam came through.

The would-be diplomats raced outside Frostbite's palace to see the commotion. Sam, Jazz and about a dozen Guys in White agents were looking in the distance at several flashes of light accompanied by the sounds of explosions coming from a landmass in the distance.

"What is it!" Tucker cried.

Frostbite and Danny looked on more warily, the sounds of battle clear to them.

"Trouble" They replied in unison.

* * *

High above Dora's kingdom the Ghost King fired a powerful ball of ectoplasm which barely missed Phantom, singing his cape and falling down, destroying much of the landscape. Pariah Dark drew his flail backwards, destroying the duplicate trying to sneak up on him in a puff of smoke.

Phantom grimaced. When he first set out to cause massive destruction and blow off some steam he hadn't expected to find the Ghost King, who had proven to be an admirable opponent. Phantom's clothes were ragged and torn, and the ghost himself was exhausted, ectoplasm was leaking out cuts all over his body in the same manor as blood to a human.

While Pariah Dark was in little better shape it was apparent to Phantom that he would need an edge to win.

"Well time to break out my secret weapon." Phantom muttered.

And with that he inhaled deeply and a second later let out a massive ghostly wail, sending Pariah flying back into Dora's palace, the combination of the wail, the impact, and the shockwave destroying the palace and most of what was left of the kingdom.

Phantom began laughing, but was quickly interrupted by laser fire that set him crashing down as well. Phantom slowly got up to get the look at who had caused the sneak attack.

Standing in front of him was his past self, hand smoking. Next to him were a dozen G.I.W. agents, Jack, Maddie, Sam, and Tucker (all armed) and what looked like an entire army of yetis.

"Hey spook." A strong voice said from behind.

The psychopathic ghost turned around and came face to face with Valerie, Wulf, and what looked like a younger female version of his former self.

From the wreckage of the city appeared Dora and Aragon, now wearing the Amulets of Aragon and in their full dragon state's. Below them the residents of the kingdom appeared below, now armed and wanting to fight back against the one who destroyed their home.

And to top it off Pariah was slowly recovering from his ghostly wail.

Deciding that the odds were not in his favor, Phantom quickly created a portal to Earth and jumped through.

'_Well that was disappointing.' _Phantom thought _'Still not a total loss.'_

Phantom drew from his hand the Ring of Rage.


End file.
